Chimp Researcher of 30 Years Says, "Animal Activists Were Right." An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

In the short documentary film The Real Planet of the Apes, Betsy Brotman,
an American researcher who spent 30 years conducting tests on chimps, says,
“The animal rights activists were right. Chimpanzees really shouldn’t be
used in experiments. I really do feel this way.”
From 1974 – 2005, Ms. Brotman ran a research institute in Liberia that
conducted experiments on more than 100 chimps.

Chimpanzee Research Center in Liberia

In her interview, Ms. Brotman says,”There are certain instances where it
would be very difficult to do the research without chimps unless you use
humans.” She is referring to the development of a hepatitis B vaccine, which
her colleague says could only be tested on chimps, as no other species is
susceptible to the virus.

Betsy Brotman studied chimps in Liberia for 30 years

Since this research was conducted, science has advanced, eliminating any
scientific rationale for using chimps. But Steve Wise, the founder of the
Nonhuman Rights Project, isn’t taking any chances. In an effort to free all
captive chimps, he is leading the legal battle to classify chimps as persons
– instead of inanimate objects – on the grounds that they, like people, they
desire things, act in an intentional manner to acquire those things, and
have a sense of self. If Mr. Wise is successful, holding chimps captive in
any setting will be illegal.

Former lab monkeys, Monkey Island
(Photo: liberiana.wordpress.com)

Today, sixty chimps, most of whom recovered from the diseases with which
they were infected at the research center, live on “Monkey Island” near
Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. The chimps live freely in a somewhat natural
habitat, and The New York Blood Center pays for their care.

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